Deimos locked the door of his house as he walked out into the streets of Uthlyn. He loved the air of learning. It was the only place in all of Connlaoth where people could actually learn, and knowledge was something Deimos valued highly. The reason he had left his house is because he had thought of a weapon concept. While sitting at his work bench, he thought about a concept of a weapon that would benefit Deimos and his particular talents.
He knew that he could create weapon that of the design, but recently, Deimos had heard of rumors about an amazing blacksmith in Uthlyn. Deimos thought that maybe someone could make this weapon better than he could himself, so Deimos went out into the streets and went to the store.
He kept walking and passed a window that had a number of swords and other weapons in the window. This most be the location.. Deimos thought to himself as he knocked on the door. He opened the door after knocking and slowly walked in.
It was a slow day, here in the shop. He didn't have any orders, and had finished all his current projects. There wasn't much to do. He was just about to close the forge early and call it a day, when he heard someone knock and enter.
"Hello!" He called out, raising his arm for the man to clasp and to bring into a split second hug, the way everyone does around here. "What brings you to my shop? How can I help you?" He asked, an easy grin on his face. He'd rather have work to do than close early, after all. Money was money!
Deimos just stood their as the man brought him into a hug. He, being the person he is, overthinks everything. Was that hug a sign of affection? No, he probably does that to everyone..He thought to himself as walked fully inside and looked at the wears.
"Well, I'm fancy myself as an engineer and I got an idea last night about a weapon concept." He stopped walking in the center of the store. "I'm more of a hand to hand combatant myself, and then I thought about crafting a blade, the size of a dagger, that fits onto something that I can attach to my hand. I don't know if that makes sense or not, but I can see it in my head." He said. He looked at man's face trying to see if it looked like her was understanding.
An engineer? How interesting! Alex though, nodding his head as he listened intently. He wondered how this could work. Fixing a dagger to a glove or gauntlet would be too awkward and weigh his hands down. Fastening a device that would put it on top of his hand would be awkward to use...
Suddenly, his eyes practically gleamed. He had an idea. "I think I know exactly what you mean. It wouldn't even be too complicated." He went to take out some paper and charcoal, "You mean, something kind of like this, right?" He sketched out something like a pair of brass knuckles with the blade on the side. It wasn't very good, but it was just quick concept art. "Of course, the end product would be much better, but like this, eh?"
He could see by the man's facial expressions that the man was trying to formulate an idea through his head. Deimos continued to watch the man's face and saw where his eyes changed. Almost like a light bulb went off in his head. He followed the man to the place where he got out paper.
Deimos looked at the drawing and smiled. "This is exactly what I'm looking for.. Preferably, I would want and ' A ' on the side and a sun. Maybe in rubies if we could," He was still picturing the weapon in his head. "How long would it take you to craft such a weapon?"
What he asked for was reasonable. Alex nodded his head thoughtfully, "A ruby? Well, if you supply your own, then yes. As for time..." He paused to think. It really depended on how much the man was willing to spend. "Well, it depends. I'll have to make a cast for it, as well as take measurements of your hands. That shouldn't take more than a few minutes, but the casting will take about half an hour. Depending on what you're willing to spend, I can..." He suddenly realizes something odd about his mouth. Declining to comment, he continues, "I can take anywhere from a day to three. Before we decide, let me measure your hands real quick."
Alex walks over to get a tape measurer, and then adds, "By the way, I noticed you're a bit high-born. How do you feel about all these magic-laws and about mages in general?" He keeps an eye on the noble to study his reply. Depending on the answer, the quality of the weapon could get evn better, with additional features.
Deimos continued to listen to the man. He had to think if he had any jewels in his house in Uthlyn.
"Ok, I can do that. As for price, just name it. I would want this as soon as possible, so whatever you think is right..
He saw the man walk away to get something. Deimos continued to stand where he was. He heard the man's question and kept his face neutral. This wasn't infomation that he flaunted around, it was surprising that this blacksmith would even ask such a question.
"I'm neutral in the arguement, my House has yet to pledge allegiance to either side. Why do you ask?" Deimos interests were peaked, why would this man ask a question. Was he a mage? Although his mind was circling with questions, his face remained the same.
He brought the measuring device over, and chuckled, "Oh, it's nothing. I just like to hear my customer's opinions. Personally, I think they should have rights, but to each their own!" As he measured the dimensions of the man's hands, he wrote numbers down. Finally, he was done.
He stepped back, "As for price... 50 gold should be reasonable, especially if you use your own ruby." After all, his weapons were the REALLY sharp, did't break down as easily, and all that. Plus, he wanted it done quick.
"That's a reasonable concern, and I like to hear the opinion of others. I will take that into consideration when our House chooses a side." Deimos smiled. He liked hearing when other put their faith in the mages.
"Well go ahead and get started making the cast. I will need to go to my house and get the gold and the rubies. If there isn't anything else you need, I will be on my way then," He said, waiting to hear the blacksmiths response.
"No, no, you're fine. Just be back by this time tomorrow. It'll be done." Alex grinned and turned to his work. He had to make the cast, then find out what metals to use and many other things. It would be a long day, but that was okay. He'd finish it to perfection. That's what Stones do!
" Ok great. I'll bring the rubies hopefully before you close, so you can get that onto the weapon too." Deimos saw that the man started to work on the project. He nodded and walked out the door with both hands on his back.
He walked straight back to his home, where he gather the gold coins, and look for some rubies that he thought he had laying around from a previous purchase. He walked back out the house and went back to the shop.
"Here's the rubies" He sat the rubies on one of the countertops. Deimos felt excited, he always did when in the process of making something. "I don't think I ever caught your name".
When the man came back, Alex had been in the process of of melting certain ingots to make the weapon. "Oh, welcome back!" He announced brightly as the man entered and dropped off a few rubies. Later, Alex would figure out which one would be the best to use. He had asked for his name as well. He opened his mouth and said, "Oh, I'm Alexander Stone. And you are?"
As he spoke, he continued working, heating the metal up, and keeping an eye on it all. He had already baked the clay cast for the design of the weapons, and was getting started on the actual forging soon. It'd take several hours more for everything to be set up, and the actual process would be finished at the end of the day. Then, he had to wake up early and finish the last few touches on the blade. The ruby would be set while it was still malleable.
Deimos watched Alexander as he worked. He liked that the man could work and be personable at the same time. The main reason why Deimos did not make the weapon himself is because he was looking for someone else to be a forge for his House, maybe even a partner. Though no one would ever beat Lilla, she was not one who could build things.
"I'm Deimos Aphrodisios, nice to meet you Alexander." He said with a smile. "Well, I'll be back tomorrow to see th crafted weapon, and if it is great, we might go on to talk about other ways you can help my House, especially in the engineering field. But for now I will be on my way,"
Deimos smiled as he walked out the door once again and went back home.
Deimos Aphrodisios was his name? Alex wasn't familiar with his family, but he was obviously wealthy. "Take care, Mr. Aphrodisios!" Alex called out as the man left. He was pleasant enough. And repeat business was always good. As long as he wasn't stopped from working with other patrons, Alex didn't have a problem with him. Especially with unique challenges like this. Making the weapon wouldn't be difficult, but it was pretty unique. And if he needed regular things, Alex made them too. Silverware, anything metal, really.
When the man was gone, Alex returned to his work. Now alone, his work was much more obvious, gravity swiftly heating the furnace even quicker, shaping and molding and refining. It would still take time, but it would be nearly finished in about 6 hours. He'd likely close up shop, eat then head to bed at that point, to finish the thing in the morning.
He would go to his home in Uthlyn and follow out his nightly duties. The next day would quickly come around. Deimos found himself to be preoccupied the next day. It finally came along where he had extra time to go back to Alexander's shop to pick up his weapons. He went back to his home and picked up a moderately sized satchel.
Deimos began his walk back to Alexander's store and opened the door. Deimos walked into the store and a grin formed on his face. He was excited to get his weapon.
Early in the morning, the blacksmith had woken up to finish the weapon. Yesterday, he had finished forging it and even set the best ruby into it, and had carved what Deimos had wanted into it. Today, he used his whetstone and gravity to compress and sharpen the blade simultaneously to achieve an impossibly sharp edge while retaining enough thickness and shape to not snap.
Alex had been finished for several hours, and had not expected to see Deimos again until later. Since he hadn't come in the morning, Alex figured he'd be by tonight. Because of this, he wasn't expecting the man to walk in just as Alex was levitating an object from the wall into his hands to use. As soon as he saw Deimos walk in, he froze, and the hammer dropped to the floor with a loud clang. Eyes wide, he stared at the noble-born vampire in shock at his entrance. He didn't move a muscle.
The loud clang rang through Deimos. He placed one finger at his ear and continued to walk in. Yes, he saw Alex levitating the object but it did not faze him. He expected that with such a question Alex asked yesterday, he was either a mage or a mage-loather. Now Deimos knows that he is the former.
"At ease Alex, you have nothing to fear from me." Deimos stood back in the center of the store as he did yesterday. "To answer your question, more honestly this time, my family is for the mages in this ridiculous conflict."
Taking a deep breath, he exhaled slowly. Apparently, this turned out for the better. Still, it showed he needed to be more careful in the future. No more being lazy about it. He was still a little shaken, but since the man was pro-mage, he might as well spill the beans. He smiled weakly, "Well, this could have ended up a lot worse then. At any rate, your weapons are ready." They were already near him, so he just picked them up, and handed them over.
"Well then, this opens a lot more business opportunities. As you already know, I can make some pretty nifty weapons. I'm also skilled at making them magical during the forging process. I can etch runes and enchantments inside the items themselves so that no one can immediately tell what they are. I offer various enchantments such as invisibility, light weight, heavier weight, unnaturally sharp, never rusting, and other more specialized things. I can imbue elemental affinities into weapons, and even chain runes to make ordinary objects powerful. For craftsmen, I can make objects that settle their nerves and help steady their hands as they work, and other charms for various things. I'm a well educated man, and I speak and write in many different magical languages that I learned from books my family has collected for ages."
He pauses, then continues, "Honestly, I could have made this weapon in about 5 hours. Sooner if I had more practice with it. The quality of things improves tremendously when I work at my best, which is hard to do here."
It looked like the weight of the world was lifted after Alex realized that he wasn't going to call the guards. This made Deimos think to himself. It's sad that people have to live in fear in their own home town, just because of the way they were born. This encounter just fueled his flames even brighter, making him feel as if his need in Connlaoth was greater than ever.
"Wow you definitely seem talented in the art of blacksmithing. You sound like a great asset to have when all hell breaks loose." Deimos was running thoughts through his head. He wanted this man to be a House asset.
"I would love for you to get the mass of my House's orders for weaponry." He looked and saw how other blades were perfectly sharpened in the store. " It looks you have finished my weapons. Would it be too much to ask to have it be enchanted with a lighter weight. I can see from here they look light, but I would love for them to be as light as possible."
Deimos really didn't care for the gauntlets to be lighter, he really just wanted to see how well Alex could enchant.
That... that could be a lot of business. Alex was kind of pumped about it. And to lighten the... knuckle-knives? He didn't know what Deimos wanted to call them, but he'd have to ask. But to lighten them would be easy. He just had to carve the rune into it so small that it'd be almost unnoticeable. He could to it enough times, at a small size, to mimic a larger, more powerful rune, while being nearly invisible. He concentrated on them, and there was a weird keening sound for a moment as Alex flexed his powers carefully and concisely to carve the runes into the weapons. They were on the part where the knuckles met the dagger, and if you ran your finger over the area, you'd feel the tiny grooves. Suddenly, the minimal weight dropped even more. It still felt like metal, but it would flow through the air so quickly, it was as if they weren't there. Not to mention the design allowed for air resistance.
"I just carved about 20 lightening runes into it. They're really small, but together are about the size of half the average rune and have the power of two full sized runes. Usually, I do this during the forging process, and you won't ever see the runes unless you snapped it right where a rune was. When I do internal ones, I make them three dimensional. It's a special method my great grandfather developed that is kind of scary in how well they work. I don't know of anyone else who can make 3D runes, especially inside the object itself."
He walked closer to where Alex was working and watched the process. It was quite graceful. Alex as able to put in the runes, but they were extremely small. Even Deimos couldn't see them at the current point. Deimos had never thought of the concept to uses tiny runes to mimic the power of bigger runes.
"You are an intelligent person, you are. I've never seen such a design, you've crafted it exactly as I saw it in my head. It's quite amazing" He continued to look at the weapon, and went to go pick one up.
The weapon was extremely light and felt like it glided on air. He placed the knuckles on his left hand. He crossed a strap and felt the secure grip that he had on the weapon. Deimos grabbed the other knuckle and placed it on his hand in the same manner.
"I think I'll call them the... The Talons" He said allowed as he walked to the middle of the store. " Excuse this, but I really want to try out these blades like if I was really fighting.."
He reached the middle of the store and looked around, he saw no one else in sight. He closed his eyes and opened them once again. Everything looked normal to him, but to Alex, he would look jittery. Deimos was in his speed mode, he was moving at a speed that would be a blur to most human eyes. He changed into his fighting stance and crossed his hands in front of him. He came back around and sliced down. Deimos jumped up, came back down and placed his hands at the position of where a head would be.
During this process, he never actually touched anything else. He slowed down after landing the last jump. He was breathing at the same rate as before and took off the gloves. He placed them back on the counter and pulled out a pouch.
"They are amazing, they flow through the air like the air itself." He tossed the pouch on the table which made a clacking noise like the noise of coins hitting each other. "Inside you should find 250 gold coins, the extra is for the runes and a extra bonus for being pro-mage"
"Thank you for the compliments," Alex replied, smiling gently. It was always nice to be appreciated for what he did. No real craftsmen would ever scorn praise. It was kind of like being praised for being a good parent, really. It made him feel good about himself.
And then he tested them out. At first, he kind of vibrated in place, and then he moved. Alex could hardly see him at all. He was slightly able to track him because of the practice he had with gravity forced him to adapt to high speeds, but this man could end him before he could react. Still, he liked the name for whatever they were. Personally, Alex called them knuckle-knives.
And then he was paid. Generously. Alex gaped at him for a moment as his mind processed this. He could expand his shop with this. He could pay a few friends of his to make a hidden room below for a secret forge where he could do so much more. This was amazing. "T-thank you," Alex began, composing himself, "You are very generous. In the future, you can expect my utmost cooperation." He could tell this man was sharp, by him having added the extra for the runes before he even knew of Alex's talents. Yes, Deimos was one to look out for in the future.
Deimos nodded with a smile. "I expect that you have never seen a mage with superhuman speed, there's only a few of us out there." He lied on purpose. Although he liked Alex, no one needed to know about him being a vampire. Only Lilla really knows, no one else in the House even knew about his true species.
" This is a small price to pay for such a impressive crafted weapon, and I'm glad you will work with my house on this upcoming conflict. My curiosity is peaked. What type of power do you have, some form of telekinetics?"
Alex had no clue at all as to what his new found business partner really was. So he took his words at face value. While intelligent and a good actor, Alex wasn't fond of lying, and wasn't good at discerning lies. Besides, he didn't need to know. But as for his power, "I can manipulate gravity. Completely and totally. Of course, some things are harder than others, but many things are possible. I can change the direction gravity faces, the intensity of gravity, and many other things. It's taught me a lot. Here, look," He held up a ball of iron that was on the table and it began to float. Suddenly, various small objects began to rotate around it.
"I'm not actually influencing the other objects. Just the ball itself. Apparently, the sun works like this, and our entire world would be one of the various things around it. At first, I though our planet was in the middle. Then I immediately challenged that though. Why WOULD be be the center of everything? As I observed more, I discovered this as well..." Suddenly, around the other objects, he allowed more to orbit around those. And then he lifted another ball separate from it all, and more scraps of metal and stuff orbited it, with smaller things orbiting those as well.
"From my observations, This is how the universe works." He grinned at Deimos.
Deimos watched intriguingly as Alex manipulated the iron. In all his years, he had never seen a mage that could manipulate gravity. Already in his mind, Deimos saw Alex growing into a powerful mage, but only time would tell.
" Well good luck telling the churches around here that." He said with a grin. "According to him, the earth is the almighty plant." Deimos pointed to the ceiling when he said 'him'. He also said this in a sarcastic tone, he didn't believe the earth was the center. But who was he to say anything different?
" Your powers are definitely unprecedented. As I said earlier, I would love to have you as a part of this conflict when it comes that time. Also, if you ever have time to come to Reajh, find House Aphrodisios and come by. It's not that hard to find. Maybe Lilla or one of our other mages can help teach you how to enhance and greater control your powers. My family is trying to help train and better arm the mages. You could also use my forge if you wish, I don't use it often, but it has the top of the line equipment."
Uthlyn was a great place, one of Deimos favorite. But Deimos rarely had the chance to come into Uthlyn, due to the position he had within the House. It required Deimos to be their daily to make sure things ran as plan. He thought about how if Alex could at least visit Reajh, they could train him. Maybe even Lilla could help him expand his power. Deimos was always thinking about the best he could do to help someone like his family, a mage.
Chuckling, Alex replied, "I'd never tell the church about this. Every male in my family has always had the ability. It predates the entire nation, honestly. I'm the last Stone, so it'll probably die with me." He seemed a bit put out about that. The power had never been passed down to the females, oddly enough. No female in his family has ever passed it down to their sons either, and no Stone of the main line has ever had any other magic potential either.
"I'll definitely stop by. I've been known to make house calls before."
Deimos listened to Alex, and found his story interesting. Every families magical potentials varys. For his family, everyone has magical powers, but each family is different. He was preparing to leave but then Alex said something that made Deimos have more things that he wanted to say.
" You don't look too old, it still seems like you have time to father a child," While he talked, he grabbed his weapons, the Talons, and placed them in a bag he was carrying along with him. The bag did not cut or get ripped by the blades.
A wry grin flashed on his face. "Perhaps." He had enjoyed this encounter a lot. It was profitable and amicable. Still, Alex had a few errands to run today. He had to hire a few people he knew to help expand his shop. "It was nice to meet you, Deimos Aphrodisios. You're a good man. However, I do have a few things left to do. If you need anything else, you know where to find me!" He laughed, "And yes, I'll likely stop by sometime soon. Maybe when business is low here."
" Please do. I'll see you next time fate brings us together" Deimos nodded and walked out of the store. He could hear the blades clacking in the bag. He walked home, and worked on making new ideas before going on about his night.